Breast conservative surgery and local recurrence

The Breast Published Online: September 29, 2015

 Mahdi Rezai, Stefan Kraemer, Rainer Kimmig, Peter Kern

Breast conservation is a legacy of Umberto Veronesi who laid the groundwork for the preservation of the body image of women affected by breast cancer (BC) with the Milan I study in the late 70ies of the last millennium. Breast conservative surgery (BCS) has two aspects: oncological safety of tumour resection with free margins and aesthetic preservation of the breast. Determinants of local control used to be T-size, nodal status and receptor status until biologically driven concepts defined risk of recurrence on the basis of molecular portraits. We explored whether these concepts of intrinsic subtypes prove at a large scale in the context of BCS and which surgical techniques procure best oncological and aesthetic outcomes, avoiding re-excision and necessity of conversion to mastectomy.